January 19 - January 25, 1995

COCK ROCK REDEFINED: In a country where the President still
panders to the reactionary religious right by firing the Surgeon
General for talking about something as universal and normal as
masturbation, it's refreshing to hear Pansy Division sing
about the joys of sex.

I know plenty of otherwise intelligent people who will be turned
off, even disgusted, by this San Francisco band because they sing
about the joys of gay sex. Men loving, fucking and sucking other
men. See? Some of you are already composing letters to the editor
because I wrote that. Well, fire away, because that's just what
the boys in Pansy Division do.

"If it's something you don't appreciate or understand or
get or it offends you, we really don't care," lead singer/guitarist
Jon Ginoli said in a recent phone interview. "We grew
up in a society that's always telling you that if you're gay that
what you're doing is wrong and that there's something sinful and
evil about it. If people can't get past that, then I don't care
if they're offended. But we don't go out of our way to offend
people, we just do what we do. If it offends people, then that's
the breaks."

"I want to get him off/ And feel his silky jizz,"
Ginoli sings in "Beer Can Boy." "I want
to pop his top/ And see him spurt and fizz."

No, their punk-pop songs aren't love letters written in the sand;
rather, they're cum-bombs exploding expectations of what's seemly
and suitable in a prudish culture obsessed with titillation but
afraid of confrontation with reality.

"There are other bands with interesting lyrics, but if the
lyrics don't work with the music it doesn't connect," Ginoli
says. "It's not just the music, it's not just the lyrics,
it's the combination of the two that has gotten us as far as we
have."

Last year Pansy Division went out on tour three times to open
for punk revisionists and MTV staples Green Day, facing crowds
mostly unprepared for an-out-of-the-closet-and-in-your-face band.
Ginoli says most audiences reacted positively, some seemed stunned
and only one--in Detroit--was openly hostile.

If you're feeling a little unfriendly toward these three musicians,
take a listen to Deflowered (last year's release on Lookout!).
The mix of late-'70s style punk-pop is reminiscent of The Ramones
and Buzzcocks without retreading those waters.

"If we didn't have strong music, once people got past the
initial flurry of interest or the initial shock or whatever it
is people first hear whenever they stumble across our music, then
we would fade out pretty quickly," Ginoli says. "Our
first record (Undressed) came out two years ago and we're
still ascending, so I think it's working out."

Although Deflowered revels in carnal pleasures in "Groovy
Underwear" (with a Jan-and-Dean "ooh-ooh" chorus)
and "James Bondage," it also explores undercurrents
of gay life in "Denny" (a sad, unsentimental look at
an HIV-positive man), "Negative Queen" ("he thinks
he's Oscar Wilde, but he's Paul Lynde") and "A Song
Of Remembrance (For Old Boyfriends)."

Some may want to dismiss Pansy Division as a novelty act, but
Ginoli doesn't buy that categorization.

"I think that would be true if the songs were more rhetorical.
If the point of the song was just to make this political message--it
didn't really work as a song, but it worked as propaganda. We
sing about things in a gay context, but other things are a little
more general."

He points to "Reciprocate," a song about inequality
between sexual partners, as an example of their humor working
on more than the obvious level.

"That's the kind of thing that's usually hidden behind vague
talk. If a couple gets divorced or they're having marital problems,
people may address the fact that they didn't get along in bed.
Well, what does that mean?"

"At the dinner table you were vegetarian/ But you smiled
and said that you became a carnivore in bed/ But the evidence
I've seen does nothing to support that claim/ All the effort is
so one-sided/ And that's totally lame/ 'Cause if you want to be
serviced with a smile/ You've gotta reciprocate more than once
in awhile."

"I think someone just skimming the surface of that song
might not get the whole thing," Ginoli says. "You can't
make people listen, so some people will think we're a novelty
act, but not very many."

If you have trouble finding Pansy Division's music in stores,
you can write them at P.O. Box 460885, San Francisco, CA 94146;
or fax them at 415-206-0854 for more information.

LAST NOTES: We do have the hip-shaking definition of a
novelty act in town this week--El Vez. This impostor of
an Elvis impersonator is at Club Congress on Sunday, January 22.
Friends Of Dean Martin open the show with a set of lounge
music for your slow-grooving pleasure. Advance tickets are $5.

Toby Twining Music is an a cappella quartet reinterpreting
classical music, jazz, and African yodeling--all with Tibetan
overtones and a mosaic of other influences.

They'll be in Pima Community College's West Campus Center for
the Arts on Saturday, January 21, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12; $14
for reserved seats. Pima students can get advance tickets for
$10. (If the show isn't sold out, there will be "student
rush" tickets for $5 each available 10 minutes before the
concert starts.) Call 884-6458 for more information.